That's a nice looking bike. I always liked the white with orange frame. Back in 1979 my friend bought a brand new 420 MX. He really liked it. We saw the Russians race them at Unadilla. I like the fender mounted number plates too. I hope you will update us on the progress with this. You certainly don't see these everyday! How is the parts availability?

Kevin

Parts and information is not bad, plus you have a wealth of info from the POG (Penton Owners Group): www.pentonusa.org.
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Damn, he had me on the ropes. I was in a weakened state and now blinded too !

I hung on to him for awhile but then my front wheel slipped over a berm and down a ravine I went. It was too tough to turn around so I had to continue down until I dropped into a creek bed. I rode the creek until I could find a place to ride out. After picking up the trail again, I stopped and took my helmet off to cool myself down. I was toast!

The wife had a good time too!

[/QUOTE]

Nice work,and thanks for the photo's.
I have a IT175G that I would like to run in AHRMA or any other vintage racing.
I would be new to racing,but certainly not riding.Used to race with my buddies on tracks we made on the farm.Any advice from you gentleman would be most welcome.
Thank you,
Tim

AHRMA is a national organization so racing events usually are not to far away. If you want to compete for national points then travel can get a bit expensive but another option, depending on where you live there are local and state organizations that cater to older bike racing. Michigan and MO. are two examples.

Nice work,and thanks for the photo's.
I have a IT175G that I would like to run in AHRMA or any other vintage racing.
I would be new to racing,but certainly not riding.Used to race with my buddies on tracks we made on the farm.Any advice from you gentleman would be most welcome.
Thank you,
Tim[/QUOTE]

Hi Tim,

Glad you liked the photos.

I think WFOPete hooked you up pretty well.

It seems you are ideally located to participate in the AHRMA North Atlantic XC series.

The PVR membership is only about $25 or so. Although I am an AHRMA member, I don't recall anyone ever asking me for an AHRMA card at a NA XC race. Seemed like PVR was all you needed but I could be wrong.

I hope you will come out and join the fun. It is a very friendly and welcoming group. I am sure you will have a great time as the photo below suggests.

Just like everything else on the Bike the Tank had issues. It had had repair work done in the tunnel area. On the right side of the Tank somebody had burned YZ into the plastic using a propane torch !!! I was able to use the pet cock, the rest of it went in the recycle not a moment to soon.

A vintage Husqvarna that is stuck can be a bit scary. They had Magnesium cases and they are known to get Gut Rot bellow the Crank if Moister has been sitting there long enough. Some times so bad that a hole can be seen buy just looking at the bottom of the motor where the case seem is. Although the European bikes were not known to get to the first corner first compared to the Japanese bikes today they are known for having a great power band for those of us at an advanced age. Café-Husky's Left Kicker is a wealth of info, and Husqvarna-Parts.com make parts buying easy.
What year KTM 250 is that ? I have found my next project bike, although most of the project is all ready done. Worlds fastest Dirt Bike, the 1981 KTM 495.

Just like everything else on the Bike the Tank had issues. It had had repair work done in the tunnel area. On the right side of the Tank somebody had burned YZ into the plastic using a propane torch !!! I was able to use the pet cock, the rest of it went in the recycle not a moment to soon.

thanks. Just a shot in the dark from a cheep bastid.

__________________you don't see luggage racks on a hearse..........act accordingly

As I said, I really didn't know much about Husky's when I bought this thing so this has been (and still is) a bit of a learning experience for me.

In any case, let's have a closer look at the beast for some 1st impressions,

First off, this is a CR model, Husqvarna's designation for the motocross model.

They also came in WR (wide ratio or woods racer?) and OR (off road) versions. My understanding is the CR model came with increased suspension travel and a close ratio gearbox. I believe the pipe is a bit different too. The WR seems to have a larger silencer and may be double walled in some sections to soften their bark.

I am finding out that the '78 CR390 is quite similar to the '77 version. I believe the frame is essentially the same. However, the '78 came with the vastly improved Timpken tapered steering bearings while the '77 still sported loose balls (always a dangerous practice ).

All the Husky's of this era were pretty attractive in my mind. Black with yellow plates was the color scheme for the big bore CR390 while the 250's used Red with green plates as shown in the following photo.

It turns out that the choice of number plate color was not really Husky's. In fact, they were simply following the requirement of FIM Grand Prix motocross that all open bikes run yellow plates with green reserved for the 250 class.

This particular bike came with non-original S&W shocks which I think are early versions of the Progressive brand shocks sold today.

I am not quite sure what shocks it came with originally as some articles seem to indicate Girllings while others mention Ohlins for '78.

Currnut shocks were another shock supplied on Huskys but I don't thing they were used on the CR motocross bike. I know we have a Currnut expert in the 2-stoke forum, perhaps he can chime in here with some more definitive information .

I did begin to formulate some opinions upon closer inspection of the bike. I have to say I thought the top shock mounts looked rather light duty. Shock bolts looked undersized too.

Same with the swing arm mounting plates. They looked pretty thin to me. No extra gusseting around the bolt like you sometimes see on motocrossers from other manufactures.

I have read about ovalizing of the swing arm bolt hole if not keep tight and I can now understand why. Fortunately, this one hasn't suffered this problem.

Compared to the Yamaha's, I thought the swing arm and rear axle diameters were undersized too... same for the wheel bearings, hmmm.

The front end was also a bit disappointing as the front fork tubes are only 35mm. According to Dirt Bike front travel was 9.5 inches. I remember the tube diameter as being a major knock on Huskys of this era and I must say they look pretty whispy compared to the 43mm forks on the Yamaha's. I was thinking a fork swap could be in this bikes future.

Of course, I am an old man now so all this it doesn't matter at this point but I couldn't help wondering how this POS would have held up back in the day.

I decided to ask the Pro's of the time what they thought about all this.

Here's what they had to say...

Brad Lackey "Yeah I was breaking those damn swing arm plates all the time! I switched to Kawasaki"

Kent Howerton "I was always bending those damn axles! I switched to Suzuki"

And now a bonus photo of the top secret prototype Husqvarna targeting BMW in the ISDT 501cc and above class .